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Richard Hingley Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 07 May 2009 Version of attached le: Published Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Hingley, R. (2001) 'Images of Rome.', in Images of Rome : perceptions of ancient Rome in Europe and the United States in the modern age. Portsmouth, R. I.: Editorial Committee of the Journal of Roman Archaeology, pp. 7-22. Supplementary series. (44). 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Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk Images of Rome Richard Hingley lnlroduction The articles in this volume explore the uses of images derived from classical Rome in a number of countries in Europe and in the United States of America. Individual papers focus upon different periods, but the emphasis is on the 16th c. to the present day. The collection originated at the Roman Archaeology Conference held at Durham in April 1999, in the session Images of Rome. A number of archaeologists were invited to talk about the ways in which popular and academic images of Rome have been developed during the past five centuries, and the session included papers by many of the authors represented in this volume - N. Terrenato (Italy), M. Struck (Germany), W. Hessing (Netherlands), and R. Hingley (England). R. Laurence presented a paper about American images of Rome but was unable to contribute to the publication, and S. Dyson kindly produced a paper in his stead. In addition, it has been possible to include papers by A. King on France, G. Mora on Spain and S. Babit on Serbia, and these have considerably extended the range of topics covered. The papers concentrate on the western part of Europe but include individual contributions on the Balkans and the United States. A selection of national tr~ditions is explored, but no attempt is made to cover countries outside the boundaries of these areas.! Individual articles consider literary traditions, popular writing, education, art, architecture, and antiquities. Many of the papers also discuss traditions of archaeological research in the various countries and how these have related, and continue to relate, to popular images. This introduction is an overview of the contribution to the topic of images of Rome made by the eight papers presented here. It also deve­ lops an argument for the need for archaeologists to consider the context of their work with regard to recent critiques of Western scholarship. Rome and the past The past has been deployed by Europeans, and peoples of the Western world in general, to carve out opposing identities, to construct the West and the non-West, and to create a cultural anceslry2 In this context the construction of the past has never been an unbiased activi- ,: ,.For a discussion of N Africa see Mattingly 1996, and for Romania see .' Deletanl 1998 (lowe this reference to D. Breeze). : Meskell 1999a, 3. 8 Richard Hingley ty3 Rome has a special place in the definition of European history and thought.~It has an almost boundless capacity for providing multiple, mutable and conflicting images; Utis has made it a rich source for mak­ ing sense of - and for destabilising - history, politics, identity, memory and desires For instance, Rome has been made to stand for literary authority, republican government, political unification, im­ perial power and its decline, military prowess, administrative effi­ ciency, an imperial golden age, the Catholic Church, and the pleasure of ruins. This volume forms part of an expanding body of work on the varying historiographical associations provided by classical Rome" Several of the stimulating recent volumes on this topic do not fully engage with the ideas and materials produced by the archaeologists who have studied the Roman empire.' The present collection aims in part to help to develop an archaeological perspective with regard to the use of images derived from classical Rome in the modem world. The authors in this collection have different perspectives on the meaning of the phrase 'Images of Rome', but the main emphasis rests on how materials derived from the Roman past have been drawn upon to provide inspiration for modem peoples in various parts of the world. These materials include architecture. archaeological remains and the available historical sources; they have been utilised to help create and transform images of cultural origin and national purpose in a variety of countries. Roman and native images A dichotomy is drawn by N. Terrenato in chapt. 4 between Roman policies and the reaction of the native (i.e., non-Roman) peoples of Italy; he defines this as a 'touchstone issue' for his paper. In fact, this 3 Smith 1986. 180-8!. ~ Edwards 1999a, 2-3; Wyke and Biddiss 1999a; Farrell 200!. s Edwards 1999a, 2-3. The complex variety of images provided by Rome was also evident to classical authors (Hardie 1992). 6 For instance, the following works are relevant. Pagden (1995) summarises the use of the image of Rome during the 16th to 18th c. in France, Spain and Britain; MoatH (1993) considers a variety of ways in which the image has been used in several countries. The volume edited by jenkyns (1992) contains a range of relevant papers. Vance (1997) examines the ways in which the Victorians interpreted classical Rome. Wyke (1997) studies cinematic images of Rome in 20th-c. Italy and America, and the volumes edited by Edwards (I999b) and Wyke and Biddiss (1999b) provide a variety of perspectives on the modem uses to which classical Rome has been put. Galinsky (1992) giv"" an account of classical and modem interactions in America, and Delet,'"\t (1998) discusses the use of the image of Rome in Romania. , Hingley 2000b, 828. Images of Rome 9 dichotomy between the Roman image and native identity also proves a significant issue for a number of the other papers. The image of the Roman empire has provided an origin myth for many of the peoples of Europe and, in particular, the West throughout history. Communities in the present-day Italian peninsula drew upon the Roman imperial past as a 'golden age of prosperity and centrality' from the early Middle Ages onward (Terrenato, below pp. 74-75). From the 9th c. the Germanic empire, which included a large part of modem Italy, was regarded as the successor to imperial Rome (Struck, below p. 94). In Spain during the 15th c. the image of classical Rome prOVided a useful political model for the new monarchy after the conquest of the territories under Islamic control (Mora, below p. 34). The Catholic monarchs were thought to represent the inheritors of the Roman empire and to have a direct lineage to the Roman emperors, through their successors, the Visigothic kings (ibid). The elite of various Western nations during the 16th to 20th c. used the image of Rome in a range of ways in the development of education, art, architecture, literature and politics. Relevant points are developed in a number of the papers (for instance, those by Struck and Hingley), but Mora provides a particular­ ly detailed and lucid account. With regard to the contrasting idea of native identity, the Roman literary sources served to provide an idea of 'otherness' that has been used to help define and unite peoples within individual nations in Western Europe. By defining their own civilisation in opposition to barbarian 'others',s classical authors provided a powerful interpreta­ tive tool for those who helped to create modem nations and empires. Roman authors writing during the period of Roman expansion in the 1st c. B.C. and 1st-2nd c. A.D. recorded the names and deeds of various sig­ nificant 'ethnic' groups in the Western Empire and elsewhere (includ­ ing Gauls, Batavians, Germans, Britons, Dacians). Some significant Roman texts became available to the educated elite in Western Europe from the 16th c. onward. They contained information about these earlier peoples, about their ways of life and acts of resistance to Roman imperialism. The texts occasionally indicated the approximate location in which these peoples had lived. With the rise of antiquarianism from the 16th c. onward, physical evidence (artefacts and structures) derived from the past could be em­ ployed to locate these peoples in the contemporary landscape of West­ ern Europe. In this context, archaeology has translated an idealised S For the classical definition of the barbarian 'other' see, for instance, •• Habinek 1998, 157; Hall 1989; Jones 1971; Patterson 1997,30-32; Romm 1992; Shaw 1983; Webster 1996 and 1999. 10 Richard Hingley image of the ethnic past into tactile realities using the modern "canons" of knowledge.9 By the late 19th and early 20th c., archae­ ologists were using techniques to locate, date, describe and classify material remains, but they also provided 'stories' about the origin of monuments and artefacts which assisted in the development of national self-identity.1O In these stories the physical elements of inherited culture - the artefacts, buildings and landscapes - pro­ vided a particularly tangible connection with an imaged ethnic past.
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